Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Refuse to Lead

This video really hit home this morning.

Last night, Danny sang Jesus Take the Wheel on American Idol. I'm not a big fan of the song. The music's all right, but the lyrics fall short of my Wesleyan-Arminian understanding of the relationship between God and humanity. While it may seem a worthy thought to hand over the steering wheel of our lives to Christ, it doesn't really work that way. When we "give" our lives to Christ, we still play a major part in making the decisions of life. The change comes in that we've committed to living life in an understanding that we're following in the way of Christ. Sure, we have Christ's Spirit to guide us, but Christ is a guide...not an auto-pilot. The image I've seen used and used myself a couple of times is the difference between a road map and a compass: our lives in Christ are not lived by a road map which tells us exactly where to go, but by a compass, who gives us direction.

It's actually quite a beautiful thing...this interaction and relationship between humanity and God.

This video from Peter Rollins describes this in part on a human-to-human level within the Church. From the experience of some of my interactions lately...he's right on. I would like to say more, but probably shouldn't...